One for the Money.

Mees raha eest... really? It's always interesting to see, how they translate the movie or book titles. I wonder how the second movie would sound in Estonian.

Apparently it's the week of long-awaited movies. First Sherlock, the second season  and now One for the Money. I have waited for this movie for about 7 years. Back then I discovered Janet Evanovich' Stephanie Plum books. I got addicted to them, read them all in no time and also managed to create another fan - my friend Triin. Even Marx read the first book and quite liked it.
The movie wasn't half bad. Although I had feared that Katherine Heigl as the protagonist would ruin the story for me, it didn't. She was ok. Of course I still think that Lauren Graham would have been much better...
But Ranger, how sad was that! First of all, he was supposed to be hot... This man was... hmmm... blaah. Secondly, he should have been the strong and silent type, man of mystery, smiling only a couple of times during 10 books or so. In the movie he was giggling like a girl and blabbing too freaking much. Babe!
Morelli was a bit less disappointing - he didn't look like Morelli but at least he behaved like one.
Grandma Mazur was deffinitely way too young.
But everything else was not half bad. Lula was spot-on, Rex too. Winnie could have been a bit more sleazy.
Trenton was awfully awful, as I kind of imagined. Cannot understand why somebody wants to live or work in a town like that, brr. Or why someone built a town like that in the worst place. Glad not to live in America, I guess.
The story followed the book quite closely I was happy to see. That's good, no point to fix something great, right?
So no I'm waiting for Two for the Dough.

Holiday season 2011

This Christmas I happened upon a really big bunch of santas helpers, one of them very special, flying one. 

I guessed it's a good sign and I was right. I got soo good presents, a lot of them. Kindle among the others - I'm a bit more modern person now. No more waiting for the books for several weeks to arrive per post. Although it seems that lately I have less and less time for reading. It has to do with the one special elf, apparently.

                                                                    
The lookalike  babies - 11 years apart. I made some christmas presents for my mother and MIL, using the new and old baby pictures. Isn't Luna a copy of Tristan, huh?
















We had russian dinner at the boxing day. Blinis with sour cream and caviar, mushroom soup and honey cake. Quite good and I'm proud to say quite authentic. The latter cannot be said about our New Year's dinner what was supposed to be french. We had some french dishes but also many others. So I guess we have to repeat this one sometime.



But anyhoo,  have a good 2012!

Wicked Appetite

I finished the book yesterday and although I'm sorry to say it, Janet Evanovich being one of my favourite authors and all, but I was really disappointed. I didn't laugh out loud even once, like I usually do reading her books.
I liked the between-the-numbers quite well before. I also liked Diesel and Carl in Plum books, but this one...
Firstly, the main character.... Lizzie?... was really boring. If I should describe her, the only thing I remember, would be that she made good cupcakes. She was not funny, not especially smart.... too sensible and average to be the protagonist at least in a Evanovich book. Throughout the book I was not once worried that something might happen to her - just didn't care.
There was one character though that I really liked - The Cat. She (he?) was great - mysterious and with attitude. Great pet for unmentionable series. But I really didn't see why Carl was dragged into this book at all. He had no role to fulfill. He only ate, went "eep" and gave finger on every second page. It grew tedious quite quickly.
I also liked Diesel better before. Here in this book he was pretty much just an average cute guy. Almost nothing left of his quircky humour and cool attitude. The chemistry between Diesel and Lizzie seemed to be very bland too. Maybe I just liked Diesel more with Stephanie, them both being sarcastic and quick-witted. There wasn't that kind of spark present in Wicked appetite.

I borrowed this book from a friend and I'm sad to say that that's the first Evanovich book (except the early romances) that I don't feel that I need to buy for myself for occasional re-reading . But I guess I will read the sequels in the future though... If nothing more then for Cat's sake.
And let's be honest, even mediocre evanovich is better than most of other authors' best books.

Yay!

2,5 days of vacation left and so many books to read. "The Last Dragonslayer" arrived today!! What a beautiful cover it has. And I'm convinced that the inside is great too. After all, it's Fforde.
I have to establish a priority list apparently.... for reading:
1. finish Beneath These Stones
2. The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
3. Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich
4. Finish Mrs. Fry's Diary
5. Beasts in My Bed by Jaquie Durrell
6. How to Shoot A Amateur Naturalist by Gerald Durrel
7. Two more books by Ann Granger

And I appear to have at least one unfinished book in all my recently weared purses.
...
Still  don't feel like reading the millennium triology.

I just sold a book on Ebay (my house is not big enough so I have to get rid of some books occasionally) and the buyer is from Philippines. That's a thing I never thought I'll do - sell a book to Philippines...
Isn't that amazing how connected and small the world is thanks to internet.

Reading "Death by Diamonds" by Annette Blair. Quite captivating read I have to say although I would get the general feeling better perhaps if I would have started from the book 1 in the series. Apparently it's the third book. Why cannot they write that kind of information clearly on the cover or at least on the title page? Anyhoo, I quite like the book. The characters are pleasant, there's some weird tension (I gather it would not be so weird if I had read the firts two books). Mysterious mystery is present as well. I'm halfway through and at the moment I think I wish to read the other books in the series as well. Let's see about it in the end though...

Later... Don't read if you are about to read this book! Spoilers!
I'm really disappointed. The story was a bit jumpy and the end was nothing I expected. The solution of the mystery was neither logical not smooth. 4 murderers?!? Isn't that a bit overkill? And two of them didn't have a motive, at all?
In my opinion in a good criminal story the ending should be like "of course, how didn't I see it, it's so logical and obvious"... Well this was more like "Whaaaat???" And althoug the characters were pleasant, in the end I didn't feel that I would like to know what happens to them next. Just don't care enough.

Stephen Fry's "Mrs Fry's Diary" arrived yesterday from Bookdepository. What a marvellous internet-bookshop that is - the book is not even published (publishing date's supposed to be this friday, october 15th) but I already got it! From England! Almost a week earlier.
So I started reading in the car this morning on my way to work (I wasn't driving myself in case you're wondering) and discovered that the book is very much what I expected. Which is a good thing.
But I cannot help hearing this voice in my head... you know this quite healthy built woman, with a slightly bent nose from A Bit of Fry and Laurie. It's like she's telling the story... curious. Anyhoo, I'm still in january so I guess I'll have more to share later.